0:00
it probably seems like a long time to
0:02
many federal employees but it's really
0:04
just been a few days ago that the office
0:06
of person personnel management or OPM
0:10
announced a deferred resignation program
0:13
and what the Deferred resignation
0:14
program does as most people watching
0:17
this video know he gives federal
0:19
employees a chance to resign by February
0:23
6 and delay actually resigning until
0:27
September 30th the actual very end of
0:30
the government's fiscal year no doubt
0:34
people have been weighing what to do
0:36
what's best for me what's best for my
0:38
family and part of the problem is
0:40
there's no one right answer uh which
0:43
your colleague in the next cubicle or
0:45
the next office or maybe the guy who's
0:48
working at home may be right for that
0:50
person may not be right for you so
0:53
making a decision is difficult it always
0:56
seems as though probably because it's
0:59
pretty much through the government runs
1:01
on rules and lawsuits courts get
1:04
involved frequently on anything of any
1:08
import involving federal employees and
1:11
of course the Deferred resignation
1:13
program is no exception a lawsuit uh
1:17
filed in The District Board of
1:19
Massachusetts uh representing a few
1:22
different unions on behalf of federal
1:24
employees and the reality is unions
1:27
represent employees in a bargaining unit
1:30
the bargaining unit uh is just a group
1:32
of employees that the federal labor
1:34
relations Authority has certified as
1:37
being appropriate because of commonality
1:39
of Interest now obviously when you say
1:41
all federal employees a lot of those
1:43
people are not in bargaining unit they
1:46
will be affected in some way by whatever
1:49
decisions the courts make so that's
1:52
pending the unions have asked temp for a
1:54
temporary restraining order we'll see
1:56
what happens no nobody can really
1:58
predict how that's going to come out one
2:01
thing that I wanted to bring up that
2:03
some of you may not have thought of
2:04
because it hasn't been widely discussed
2:07
and government rules on the personnel
2:10
management system are sometimes obtuse
2:14
Arcane sometimes even difficult to find
2:16
if you don't work in the field but OPM
2:19
has said that this deferred resignation
2:22
program is a way for federal employees
2:24
to take advantage of this offer get paid
2:28
through next September even though they
2:30
may still be on the roles they be
2:33
through September but you have to resign
2:36
by today so what are you going to do and
2:39
if you decide not to take the Deferred
2:41
resignation program what's likely to
2:44
happen again according to OPM a lot of
2:47
things are probably going to be
2:48
happening in some agencies not
2:50
necessarily all these other things
2:52
involve restructuring resizing possibly
2:56
closing an agency riffs furlows maybe
3:00
administrative leave for some employees
3:02
as we've already seen with Dei employees
3:05
who've been paid on administrative leave
3:07
of course with administrative leave
3:09
these employees are still getting paid
3:11
so there's no immediate financial
3:13
hardship although obviously they're not
3:15
going to be paid for a long time so that
3:18
result is is coming one of the things
3:21
that people find confusing sometimes is
3:23
a fur what is a Furlow and a Furlow just
3:27
means you're placed in a non-duty
3:30
non-pay status at least in this case
3:32
there's two types of furlows there's an
3:34
administrative Furlow and there's a
3:36
Furlow that happens when the government
3:39
shuts down which happens unfortunately
3:41
more often than we would like but we
3:43
know it happens a lot of people are
3:45
thinking I was fured before when the
3:48
government shut down I was out of work
3:50
for a week I went home I did whatever I
3:52
did with my family came back and I got
3:55
paid it was late but I got the money the
3:59
difference is with an administrative
4:01
Furlow that's not likely to happen if
4:04
you're placed in a Furlow by your agency
4:07
you're in a non-duty non-pay status as
4:10
the charm implies you're not going to
4:12
get paid so that's an option that the
4:15
government has it may choose to use it
4:18
it may not they may just go into a riff
4:20
a reduction in force there's no set rule
4:24
as to how the government will play this
4:26
out and in part it depends on what
4:29
happen happens in the court case we knew
4:31
a court case was coming the unions had
4:33
promised long ago basically if Trump is
4:36
for it we're going to be fighting it in
4:38
most cases so they knew that while this
4:41
sounds generous I think it was intended
4:43
to be generous under a set of
4:45
circumstances that aren't really
4:47
favorable to federal employees many of
4:49
them but that was the intent we give you
4:52
this other option you can get paid or
4:55
you can stick around but these bad
4:57
things are going to happen because we're
4:59
changing the structure of how the
5:01
federal employee and working environment
5:03
has been conducted in the past it's
5:05
going to be different enhanced
5:07
performance standards as an example but
5:10
to get to that point they want to reduce
5:12
the government substantially furlows are
5:15
one obvious option so if you decide I'm
5:18
not going to take this deferred
5:20
resignation I'm going to go back to work
5:22
just as if nothing happened something
5:24
will happen you just don't have any
5:26
control over it so that's where we stand
5:29
and you have to decide very quickly if
5:32
you're going to take the Deferred
5:33
resignation program the decision you
5:36
make hopefully will be the best one for
5:38
you the best for your family in a set of
5:41
strenuous circumstances obviously it's
5:43
tough to make a decision we wish you the
5:45
best of luck we don't know what the
5:47
court will decide we don't know what the
5:49
government will do it's possible that
5:53
the court would decide that this
5:56
decision they're issuing applies to
5:57
people in a bargaining unit not other
6:00
people the government could decide I
6:02
suppose we're going to pull the program
6:04
because of whatever the Court decides
6:06
and just go back to running riffs
6:08
furlows Etc we don't know I'm sure we'll
6:11
have some interesting videos coming out
6:13
in the very near future once the path
6:16
starts to become clear as to how this is
6:18
going to play out thank you for watching
6:20
we wish you the best of luck and we hope
6:23
that you are able to make the best
6:25
decision that you are satisfied with
6:28
under difficulty circumstances
